HOUSTON, April 20 (NNN-Xinhua) — A new variant of COVID-19 was found by scientists at the US Texas A&M University, media reported Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The variant, BV-1, was found in just one case: an individual who had mild symptoms, media quoted the Texas A&M scientists as saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The patient, a student who lives off-campus, first tested positive on March 5. A second test on March 25 was still positive, indicating the variant may cause longer-lasting infections than other variants, the scientists said. An April 9 test was negative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The student showed mild, cold-like symptoms the first few weeks. The symptoms did not fully go away until April 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the scientists, BV-1 is related to the United Kingdom variant of SARS-CoV-2 and has a “potentially concerning genetic make-up” that indicates it might not respond to antibodies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We do not at present know the full significance of this variant, but it has a combination of mutations similar to other internationally notifiable variants of concern,” said Ben Neuman, the Global Health Research Complex Chief Virologist at Texas A&M University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“This variant combines genetic markers separately associated with rapid spread, severe disease and high resistance to neutralizing antibodies,” Neuman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Neuman said the scientists will continue to monitor for more cases of the variant.\u00a0— NNN-XINHUA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HOUSTON, April 20 (NNN-Xinhua) — A new variant of COVID-19 was found by scientists at the US Texas A&M University, media reported Monday. The variant, BV-1, was found in just one case: an individual who had mild symptoms, media quoted the Texas A&M scientists as saying. The patient, a student who lives off-campus, first tested […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119506"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=119506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119506\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=119506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=119506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=119506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}